Posts made by Wolfshanze

My “shortages” are a product of my own OCD mind.

You see… when I combine 1941 with 1942, I will still be short on things like Japanese tanks, American Tanks, British tanks, etc, etc… because I can’t allow Japanese Tigers, or UK/US Joseph Stalin tanks that come standard with 1941.  1941 shares one model of each type for all allies (like Joseph Stalins) and one for each of both axis (like Tigers).  This means, if I want all nations to have the same number of tanks, for example, i’ll need to order 5 more tanks each for Japan, US and UK (and that’s just the tanks, there are others)… so i’ll want something like Type 95 Ha-Gos for Japan, Shermans for US, etc, etc, to make up for the Ziplock bag hell in the corner that will become of things like Japanese Tiger tanks.

WWII Equipment is a hobby of mine… I literally have scores of books (just a few posted below, and I just noticed my daughters pokemon snuck onto my shelf) in my private library in my study about equipment from all the powers in WWII… tanks, fighters, bombers, ships of all types, etc, etc.  I completely rewrote an over 300 unit database for the PC game Pacific General back in the day, and i’m just a stickler for things like this… I would lose sleep moving Japanese tigers across Asia!

So ya… i’ve been perusing the HBG site for extra equipment!

I’ll be picking everything up this weekend… can’t wait to get back into A&A.

I’m grabbing a couple of these 25-bin Stanley Organizers this weekend… removable bins and secure locking with comfy handle to move them around… i’m combining multiple sets, so i’ll need more than just the box and ziplocks.

What’s the consensus on favored sides in 1941 and 1942 SE?

Born sometime in the late 60’s (back in those days, people didn’t track birthdays)… as a teen in the 80’s, I played the original 1st edition 1984 MB Gamemaster Axis and Allies Classic extensively for several years… I then became distracted after I joined the United States Air Force, and in my free time playing with high-end computers like the Commodore 64 (and eventually Amiga)… deployed in a few wars, something, something, something… settled down… I’m since retired from the Air Force, now working as a civilian for the Navy and deciding to get back into A&A (picking it back up with 1941 and 1942SE) to share with my kids.

So this is why you threw away all your poker chips… you don’t need to stack units on chips!  Good Lord, how many sets of the game do you have combined there?  That’s a plethora of units!

I’d be glad to hear your opinion of HBG’s custom sculpts… if I just want to enlarge my copy of 1942 SE’s available force pool… are there any must haves or must avoids?

It is possible we have inadvertently hijacked Grasshoper’s thread… my apologies.

Here, in best to keeping with the spirit of the thread, my latest gathering of A&A from my office at work:

Or I might just do one really big Ziplock bag… if I had to REALLY organize them… I could use two giant ziplock bags, one for Axis and one for Allies…

[dramatic pause]

Or i’ll stick with the Stanley Bin Organizer idea… when I get everything up and running, i’ll take some pics for the forum.

@knp7765:

In Anniversary, cruisers were introduced and the Germans got the Hipper class cruiser.  For some reason, they chopped off the aft end of the cruiser piece so they look odd.Â

Ya, well, that may be because the German Hipper class had faulty stern designs to begin with… they failed often, and the same problem even extended to the Bismark (when the battleship went down, the stern quickly broke off).

Here’s a couple of pics of what happened to the Prinz Eugen… maybe the sculpts were just made to give you a more realistic depiction of what your cruiser would look like in war!  lolz

@CWO:

In my new arrangement, I distinguish between the core units of each country and everything else.  The core units are the sculpts which correspond exactly in design and size and colour/shade to the ones in G40/2.  That narrow definition lets me squeeze the core sculpts for the major powers (US, UK, USSR, Germany and Japan) into two consecutive trays each (suffixed as -1 and -2).

So, is each tray one big bay (like a big ziplock), or is each tray sub-compartmentalized by unit type?

@CWO:

The American-coloured and British-coloured Soviet IS-2 tanks, on the other hand, are in one of the trays that I use for what I call “foreign equipment.”

Yeah… about that… I think I’m going to have a “special Hell” for those units… which unfortunately seems to be half to two-thirds of the already paltry 1941 units.  While I certainly appreciate Tiger tanks for Germany and Joseph Stalin tanks for the Soviet Union, I’m not exactly fond of Tiger tanks for Japan and Joseph Stalin tanks for the US and UK… so forth, and so forth seems to repeat with the 1941 set as sculpts for various units that were never a part of a countries OOB appear as the only unit for that nation (at least as far as 1941 is concerned, I will be combining 1941 with 1942 SE sculpts for both 1941 and 1942 gameplay).  I know they went cheap with 1941 sculpts, but damn… at least use a Sherman or something, as Shermans were used by all three major Allied powers.

Fortunately, the 1941 units are few in numbers… 5 tanks, 4 fighters, 2 bombers will be easy to replace with HBG sculpts for the nations that got hosed… so when Japan is equipped with 5 tigers and 4 FW-190s, i’ll just have to order something like 5 Type-95 Ha-Go’s and 4 Tony’s, or something like that, because I still want a slight buffer over the default 1942 SE units… i’ll try and order replacements from HBG that aren’t already included in 1942 SE to get different sculpts.

But those really odd-ball units I can’t see my OCD mind allowing like Japanese Tigers?  Yeah… those will end up in a ziplock bag somewhere and won’t even make it to my gameplay storage bins.

Well, I’m neither 100% limited to two, just feeling things out, and ATM, I don’t have plans on any of the 1940 games in the immediate future.  So, for the foreseeable future, I’m looking at a merged 41/42… and since 1941 is a “whopping” 8 Infantry, 5 tanks, 4 fighters, 2 bombers kind of thing for each country, think of it more as a storage solution for 1942SE with a few extra units thrown in! lolz… either way, its still 5 countries tops for my immediate future plans.

Also, I’m getting a feel for how many bins i’ll need and how I’m going to break up the countries. The nice thing about the Stanley organizers is they have removeable bins that come in three sizes (small/medium and large), so while “25 bins” is the default, you can add or remove larger/smaller bins to make it have more or less than 25 depending on your needs.

I’m not averse to mixing things that would be easily distinguishable from one another at a glance… like maybe one bin for fighters and bombers combined… and I might even mix nations at least from the same side… it all depends how the compartmentization works. That one guy in this thread put all infantry in one bin, all tanks in one bin, etc, etc… it is easy to pick out German tanks from Japanese tanks in the same bin, so I see the logic in that approach.

I also know its 3 Allied vs 2 Axis, so it’s not 100% even between two cases, but I would put the “neutral” things like Industrial Plants and AA in the same case as the Axis to balance out.  No matter, I’m not bound to two and only two, I’m playing it by ear… if I can make them comfortably and logically fit in two cases, I will… if there’s not enough room or not enough bins for good organization, they’re only $12 a pop for the cases, I can get a third or a fourth if need be… either way I’m really looking at a slightly beefed up 1942 SE list of units… i’ll see how it goes this weekend, if I need more cases, i’ll do what needs to be done!

EDIT:
Just saw your post Private Panic… I saw Black Elk’s idea, and it seems intriguing… what I might do is OPTION 4: two cases, using Black Elk’s idea, with all Allies mixed by type in one case and all/both Axis missed by type in a 2nd case (as I can trade out bins from small/med/large to accommodate my plans).

As much as I love a dedicated bunker with a massive custom map of Global 1940 with tons of extra units and fine woodworking… the reality is (at this point in time) I have neither the space, the $$$, the skill to craft it, nor any opponents beyond my Risk-playing 8 and 10yo children… as I’ve stated in other posts, I will introduce them to 1941 and see where it goes from there… maybe by the time they hit their teens they’ll be all for a massive 1940 global seize the world party… but until then, my more realistic goal is graduate them from 1941 to 1942 SE and still be playing on the kitchen table with the default map! I have been talking to a coworker who’s a bit of a hermit with his chess board, but maybe I can trade a game or two of chess for a tryout of Axis and Allies… will take some coaxing! lolz.

CWO Marc, I saw your custom layout, and noticed your under-table storage… you had a lot of USA-1, USA-2, USA-3, Germany-1, Germany-2, Germany-3, etc boxes under the tables.  What do the numbers mean… are they just 1-of-3, 2-of-3, or do they mean something else (like 1 is for this game, and 2 is for that game).  I’m thinking about grabbing some Stanley removeable container organizers and using a couple for my games (one “briefcase” for Axis and one for Allies).  Pop-em open on a TV tray next to my kitchen table for play… ya, ya, laugh at my noobness, but its better than a ziplock bag in the game-box! lolz.

P.S.
I am uber-jelly of Young Grasshopper’s setup… I’ve seen his youtube channel, and man… that’s some impressive work!

I find the Australia strategy as bush-league stuff, and often such a player can get bottled up and has nowhere to go to stop others from getting other prizes.

I like to do the reverse psychology strat… since most people think of Europe as a death trap, few will commit much to either taking or defending it, which often leaves it open to a person who will commit to taking it, and its just as easy to deny almost any other players continent from Europe as it is from being attacked from outside.  Offense is the best defense… if you can pick up the Mid East and Greenland during initial deployment and mass armies there, people will always assume you’re going for North America and/or Africa, but instead turn inward from both directions and seize Europe.

Every game is different of course, but I so often find people ignoring Europe as a death trap, it leaves it open for conquest to those with vision… seal Iceland/Greenland off, Ukraine and the Middle East, that’s three blocking territories for five armies, then wage war in Africa as your active front, keeping southern Europe blocked off.

I played SFB extensively back in the 1980s… I was very big into it… but, like A&A it’s been 30 years since I last played… not sure if its up in my attic with my other 30 year old games, and I don’t know who I’d play with… is SFB still in print 30 years later?

Sorry, but I’d like to resurrect this thread, because its such an interesting topic, and its exactly what I’m debating/thinking about as I prepare to start rebuilding my set(s) after a 30 year absence.

This week i’ll be purchasing a bunch of stuff (after I get PAID of course), to include 1941, 1942 SE, extra units from HBG and possibly printing a custom battle board and grabbing some storage options.

Even though I see playing both 1941 (to introduce my kids to the game) and moving back up to 1942 SE (after the kids get comfortable with the rules), I will probably merge both sets of units into one common pool to share with both games, and I will reinforce the set with HBG sculpts (probably to fill sculpts that don’t come with either game).

I’ve been thinking about custom storage, and I’m leaning on going with a Stanley Removeable Compartment Storage Organizer.  There’s a 25-bin one that retails for roughly $12-ish bucks at various stores, and I’m thinking I can get away with buying two of these and using one for Allies and one for Axis to hand to whoever is playing either side.

Anyways, I love reading about this type of project, and love hearing how others resolve the situation as well.

Yes, I remember your comments about the green color issues… now to figure out which is the current color on HBG to use for Japan! lolz…

Man, looking at everybody’s custom boards and dedicated bunkers, I feel like such a nub using the default gameboard on my kitchen table…
:-P

If one were to take this down to kinkos or wherever to  have it printed (such as the battle board), how do I know, or what is the “preferred/assumed” size in having this made… like 10"x12" or whatever… is there an official size to these types of battle boards?

If one were to take this down to kinkos or wherever to  have it printed (such as the battle board), how do I know, or what is the “preferred/assumed” size in having this made… like 10"x12" or whatever… is there an official size to these types of battle boards?

So the “olive drab” green on HBG is the American shade of green for current 1942 SE units?

EDIT:
Heard back from HBG… the “Olive Drab” is indeed the correct color match for the current 1942 SE units… oh well, time for me to go visit the eye doctor!